Closings

Severe Weather

On this day: June 19

2013: Actor James Gandolfini, best known for his portrayal of mob boss Tony Soprano on HBO's "The Sopranos," dies from a heart attack at age 51 in Rome, Italy. Gandolfini won three Emmys for the role of Tony Soprano and was nominated another three times. He also appeared in movies such as "True Romance," "Get Shorty" and "Zero Dark Thirty."

2013: Country music singer-songwriter Ottis Dewey "Slim" Whitman Jr., known for his yodeling abilities and his falsetto voice, dies of heart failure at age 90 in Orange Park, Florida. Whitman was best known for songs such as "Indian Love Call," "Keep It a Secret," "Secret Love" and "Rose Marie."

2013: Author Vince Flynn, best known for his political thriller novels centered around counter-terrorism agent Mitch Rapp, dies of prostate cancer at age 47 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

2010: Sudanese-born basketball player Manute Bol, one of the tallest men ever to play in the NBA, dies at the age of 47 in Charlottesville, Virginia, from acute kidney failure and complications from Stevens–Johnson syndrome. A center who played for four teams during his 10-season NBA career, Bol was considered among the best shot-blockers in the history of the sport. At 7 feet 7 inches tall, he shares the record of tallest NBA player with Gheorghe Muresan.

1999: Stephen King is struck from behind by a mini-van while walking along a rural road in Lovell, Maine. The horror writer would end up spending nearly three weeks in the hospital recovering from a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, a cut on his scalp and a broken hip.

1997: Singer and guitarist Bobby Helms, best known for singing the 1957 song "Jingle Bell Rock," dies from emphysema and asthma at age 63 in Martinsville, Indiana. He also scored No. 1 country hits in 1957 with the songs "Fraulein" and "My Special Angel."

1993: English author William Golding, the Nobel laureate best known for his novel "Lord of the Flies," dies of heart failure at age 81 in Perranarworthal, Cornwall, England. He also won the Booker Prize for literature in 1980 for his novel "Rites of Passage," the first book in what became his sea trilogy, "To the Ends of the Earth."

1991: Actress Jean Arthur, best known for her roles in the Frank Capra films "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "You Can't Take It With You" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and for her role as the rancher's wife in the Western "Shane," dies of heart failure at age 90 in Carmel, California. Arthur also was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1944 for her performance in "The More the Merrier."

1986: Len Bias, a star basketball forward at the University of Maryland, dies from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose two days after being drafted by the Boston Celtics with the second overall pick in the NBA Draft. A Landover, Maryland, native who was a consensus pick for First Team All-American in 1986 and a two-time ACC Player of the Year, Bias was 22 when he died.

1984: Actor Paul Dano, best known for movies such as "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Girl Next Door" and "There Will Be Blood," is born in New York City.

1983: Rapper Ben "Macklemore" Haggerty (left), best known for the hit songs "Same Love," "Thrift Shop" and "Can't Hold Us" with producer Ryan Lewis, is born in Seattle, Washington.

1978: "Garfield," the holder of the Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.

1978: Basketball power forward Dirk Nowitzki, who has played with the Dallas Mavericks since 1998, winning an NBA title in 2011, is born in Würzburg, West Germany. Nowitzki also won the 2011 NBA Finals MVP and was named the NBA's MVP in 2007.

1978: Actress Zoe Saldana, best known for movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "Avatar," "Star Trek" and "Star Trek Into Darkness," is born Zoe Yadira Saldaña Nazario in Passaic, New Jersey.

1975: Actress Poppy Montgomery, best known for the TV series "Without a Trace" and "Unforgettable," is born Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue in Sydney, Australia.

1972: Actor, director and producer Jean Dujardin is born in Rueil-Malmaison, France. He is best known for his role in the 2011 silent film "The Artist," for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, one of five the movie won, including Best Picture. By winning the Oscar, Dujardin became the first French actor awarded Best Actor. He's also appeared in the movies "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "The Monuments Men."

1967: Actress Mia Sara, best known for movies such as "Legend," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (pictured) and "Timecop," is born Mia Sarapochiello in Brooklyn Heights, New York.

1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved by the U.S. Senate after surviving a filibuster that had occupied the Senate for 60 working days since March 30. After going through the House-Senate conference committee, the bill was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964 (pictured).

1963: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova returns to Earth after spending nearly three days as the first woman in space. A textile factory assembly worker and an amateur parachutist, Tereshkova was the first person recruited to join the Cosmonaut Corps without experience as a test pilot. Her Vostok 6 mission launched on June 16 and made 48 orbits of Earth. Tereshkova never made a second trip into space, but became an important member of the Communist Party and a representative of the Soviet government.

1962: The movie musical "The Music Man," starring Robert Preston, Shirley Jones and Buddy Hackett, premieres in theaters. The film, based on the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name by Meredith Willson, grossed nearly $15 million at the box office, making if the fifth highest-grossing movie of 1962.

1962: Singer-songwriter and dancer Paula Abdul, best known for her chart-topping singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is born in San Fernando, California. Abdul, whose No. 1 hits included "Straight Up," "Forever Your Girl," "Cold Hearted" and "Opposites Attract," started out as a Los Angeles Lakers cheerleader before becoming a highly-sought choreographer. She found renewed fame in the early 2000s as an original judge on the reality TV singing competition "American Idol."

1954: Actress Kathleen Turner, best known for movies such as "Body Heat," "Romancing the Stone," "Prizzi's Honor," "The Accidental Tourist," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "The War of the Roses" and "Peggy Sue Got Married," is born in Springfield, Missouri. Turner earned an Oscar nomination for "Peggy Sue Got Married" and won Golden Globes for "Romancing the Stone" and "Prizzi's Honor," two of her five nominations for the award. She's seen here in 2008.

1953: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing Prison in New York for performing espionage for the Soviet Union. The couple, who had been convicted of passing information about the atomic bomb to the Russians, became the only two American civilians to be executed for espionage-related activity during the Cold War.

1951: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which extends Selective Service until July 1, 1955, and lowers the draft age to 18 years and six months.

1950: Singer-songwriter and musician Ann Wilson (left), best known as the lead singer of the rock band Heart, with her sister Nancy Wilson (right), is born in San Diego, California. Heart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

1948: Singer-songwriter and musician Nick Drake is born in Rangoon, Burma. The British folk musician failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime but his work has gained achieved wider notice and recognition since his 1974 death at age 26 by prescription drug overdose. He's seen here on the cover of his 1970 album "Bryter Layter."

1948: Actress Phylicia Rashad, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running sitcom "The Cosby Show," is born Phylicia Ayers-Allen in Houston, Texas. In 2004, she became the first black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, for her role in the revival of "A Raisin in the Sun."

1947: Author Salman Rushdie, best known for the controversy surrounding his fourth novel, 1988's "The Satanic Verse," is born in Bombay, India. "The Satanic Verses" caused a controversy in the Islamic world because of what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad, leading to death threats against Rushdie and a bounty issued by Ayatollah Khomeini. Rushdie also won the Booker Prize for his second novel, 1981's "Midnight's Children" and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.

1937: Scottish author J. M. Barrie, best known as the creator of Peter Pan, dies of pneumonia at age 77 in London, England.

1936: German boxer Max Schmeling, a former world heavyweight champion, hands American Joe Louis his first professional loss by knocking him out in the 12th round at Yankee Stadium. The fight took place with the backdrop of Nazis rising to power in Germany, giving it added political meaning. By winning the fight, Schmeling made himself the No. 1 contender for Jim Braddock's title, but Louis instead got the fight and knocked Braddock out to win the heavyweight championship in 1937. Schmeling got the chance to win the title in 1938, but Louis knocked him out in the first round of the rematch.

1930: Actress Gena Rowlands, best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes, is born in Madison, Wisconsin. Rowlands worked with Cassavetes on 10 films, earning Academy Award nominations for her roles in "Gloria" and "A Woman Under the Influence." She also won four Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes in her career, including one of each for portraying first lady Betty Ford in the 1987 made-for-TV movie "The Betty Ford Story." She also starred in movies such as Woody Allen's 1988 film "Another Woman," 1998's "Hope Floats," the 2005 thriller "The Skeleton Key" and two films directed by her children, Nick Cassavetes' "The Notebook" and Zoe Cassavetes' "Broken English."

1919: Pauline Kael, often regarded as the most influential American film critic of her day, is born in Petaluma, California. Kael, who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991, was known for her witty, biting and highly opinionated style of writing, influencing a several generations of major film critics. She died of Parkinson's disease at the age of 82 on Sept. 3, 2001.

1914: Lester Flatt (left), the bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist whose playing style influenced generations of musicians, is born in Duncan's Chapel, Tennessee. Flatt, along with his banjo-picking partner Earl Scruggs (right), helped shape the sound of 20th-century country music. Flatt & Scruggs, as they were known, were best known for two signature songs: "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and "The Ballad of Jed Clampett." Flatt also helped shape the "high, lonesome sound" of Bill Monroe, often referred to as the father of bluegrass, after joining Monroe's band, the Blue Grass Boys, in the 1940s. Flatt died of heart failure at age 69 on May 11, 1979.

1910: The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.

1903: Hall of Famer first baseman Lou Gehrig, known as the "Iron Horse" for his 2,130-game playing streak, is born in New York City. He played 17 seasons for the New York Yankees, winning six World Series championships. He set the record for career grand slams at 23 and retired with a .340 career batting average, 493 home runs, 2,721 hits and 1,995 RBIs. Gehrig set the consecutive-game streak from June 1, 1925, until April 30, 1939, which was broken by Cal Ripken Jr. in September 1995. He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that now more commonly bears his name, in June 1939 and died on June 2, 1941.

1902: Bandleader and violinist Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo, best known for almost a half-century of New Year's Eve big band performances on radio and television, is born in London, Ontario, Canada. Lombardo and his band, The Royal Canadians, were known for playing the traditional song "Auld Lang Syne" as part of the New Year's Eve celebrations, helping popularize the song for the holiday. He died of a heart attack at age 75 on Nov. 5, 1977.

1897: Actor and comedian Moe Howard, best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, is born Moses Harry Horwitz in Brooklyn, New York.

1885: The French steamer Isère arrives in New York Harbor with 214 crates holding the disassembled Statue of Liberty. After its pedestal was completed in April 1886, the 151-foot-tall statue was erected in time for an Oct. 28, 1886, dedication.

1867: At Jerome Park Racetrack in The Bronx, New York, Ruthless (depicted here in a painting by the famous equine artist Edward Troye) beats out De Courcey by a head to win the inaugural running of the Belmont Stakes. The race has traditionally been a part of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred racing with the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, and since 1931 it has been the third and final leg of the Triple Crown.

1865: More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Union Gen. Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrive in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and many other states as Juneteenth.

1846: The first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright's rules on Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1. Cartwright umpired the game and even fined one player six cents for cursing.

Comments

The views expressed are not those of this site, this station or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use.